Philosophy Weekend: Recharging

The original 1952 New York Times Magazine Article that introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" to the world.

Levi Asher reviews "Big Sur", Jack Kerouac's shattering chronicle of his early 1960s crack-up.

Paul Bowles was born in New York City on December 30, 1910. He was an only child and exhibited early the existentialist's sense of alienation ...

The performer is no longer the object of the spectator, but rather her/his confessor. The spectator's emotional response should be induced by a confrontational, violent experience.

An extensive study of the poetic influences, traditions and radical ideals about nature, modernism, shamanism and native culture that inspired Doors singer and lyricist Jim Morrison.

A look back at Harold Pinter's great play 'The Birthday Party', which was savaged by critics when it opened in 1958.

British novelist John Fowles, author of a postmodern sendup of ancient Greek mythology called 'The Magus', died this weekend at his home in Lyme Regis, England.

According to William James, we don't smile because we feel happy or cry because we feel sad. The physical reaction happens first, the philosopher said, and it's more correct to say we feel happy because we smile, or we feel sad because we cry.

What do Texas Hold'em poker and postmodern literature have in common, and how does a song by the Who help explain it?

I was facing a loudmouth standup comedian and superb poker player who had an annoying device: when he bet, he flicked his wrist in a certain way that made the chips jump. It was a slick move calculated to aggravate, and after two hours at a table with this obnoxious player that's exactly the effect it had on me ...

Slavoj Zizek, a furry and fiery "rockstar philosopher" from Slovenia who calls himself a Communist and rages at the hypocrisy of wealthy American liberals, appeared in a raucous debate at the New York Public Library last night. Zizek's opposite partner was French activist and intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who typically argues for idealistic solutions and pragmatic steps towards a more peaceful world.

The idea, found in Plato's Republic, that each human being is a government resonates with many other psychological or spiritual models and ideologies. Jesus may have been thinking of something similar when he said "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." Or, in Buddhist cosmology, one might say that the invididual desires that bedevil a confused person are like "citizens" that must be made peace with. An enlightened person governs his owns needs, goals and ideas with wisdom and care.

Diane Kurys has directed a film biography of rebellious French writer Francoise Sagan, titled simply "Sagan". Perhaps inspired by the success of La Vie En Rose, a recent biopic of Edith Piaf, the new film stars Sylvie Testud (who played Piaf’s friend in "La Vie en Rose"), and follows the story of Francoise Sagan from the publication of her first book to her final days in Normandy.

In Max Beerbohm's short story, Enoch Soames is an unsuccessful writer and hanger-on in the London cafe scene in the 1890s. Enoch is frustrated that no one recognizes his genius, so he makes a deal with the devil to go forward in time and read about himself in the future.

There's something wonderfully circular about the fact that Walter Kirn's novel Up In The Air, originally published in 2001, is now a $7.99 airport paperback. Like the hit film version directed by Jason Reitman and starring George Clooney, Kirn's novel affectionately skewers the modern corporate mentality that thrives on airplanes, in airports or in airport "edge city" chain hotels. Hollywood has brought a literary novel to its intended audience.